Portal:Trains/Did you know

Did you know

...that in 2005 the National Railway Company of Belgium was split into three parts: Infrabel to maintain the infrastructure, NMBS/SNCB to manage train operations, and NMBS/SNCB-Holding to own and coordinate the other two?
...that the Northern Line of the State Railway of Thailand was originally built to standard gauge in 1891 but regauged to metre gauge in 1919?
...that the dynamite blast that officially 'holed' through the initial bore of Moffat Tunnel in Colorado was set off by United States President Coolidge upon pressing a key in Washington, D.C.?
...that the famous British poet William Wordsworth was so displeased at the incursion of the Kendal and Windermere Railway into the picturesque Lake District landscape, he composed a sonnet in opposition to the project?

Archive - Candidates

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Archives:	2005

The following items were used in the Did you know section of Wikipedia's Main page.

...that due to legal restrictions, the first scheduled electric tram service in Saint Petersburg ran not on city streets, but rather on ice covering the Neva River during winter season?
...that, as a result of track switchbacks on either side of a mountain pass, all trains of the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad crossed over the U.S. continental divide running backwards?

...that the Vitebsk Rail Terminal in Saint Petersburg (pictured) contains a replica of the first train used in the Russian Empire?
...that some historians claim that Russian engineer Fyodor Pirotsky built the world's first electric tramway?
...that in 1883, Southern Pacific Railroad tried to block the California Southern Railroad from installing a level junction across their tracks in Colton, California, by moving a locomotive slowly back and forth at the intersection point?
...that the Kiev tram was the first electric tramway in the Russian Empire, and the second one in Europe, after the Berlin Straßenbahn?
...that Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond, Virginia contains a steam locomotive and ten flat cars trapped in a collapse in October 1925 which were never recovered?

...that the second line of the Valenciennes tram (pictured) will open in 2007, but will reuse the platform of a railway line that opened in 1838?

...that Artrain USA (pictured) is a 5-car art gallery that tours the U.S. 11 months of the year, visiting small towns whose residents may not otherwise have a chance to see art up close?
...that the Lviv tram, opened on May 5, 1880 in Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary), is one of the last urban transit systems in the former Soviet Union to still use grooved rail?
...that Aleksandra Piłsudska, a Polish revolutionary and second wife of dictator Józef Piłsudski, helped plan the Bezdany train raid?

...that the 1040-foot-long Starrucca Viaduct in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania was the largest and most expensive stone railway viaduct when built in 1848, and is still in use by the Norfolk Southern Railway?
...that Szeged's public transport company is one of only four city transport companies that operate tram service in Hungary?

...that the 44 hour and 54 minute transit time of the 1905 Scott Special between Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, wasn't beaten in regular railway operations until the 1937 launch of the Super Chief?
...that following the Mississauga train derailment of 1979, nearly 250,000 people had to be evacuated for up to five days while toxic chemicals that had spilled onto the railway tracks were cleaned up?
...that the Funicular dos Guindais was originally built to carry cargo - including port wine - from the Ribeira quayside to the centre of Porto, and is now a tourist attraction and one of the world's steepest counter-balanced cable railways?
...that rail transportation in Okinawa dates back to 1902, when the island's first line started operations to haul sugarcane, but the Okinawa Monorail is the only line still in operation?

...that Linimo in Aichi, Japan claims to be the world's first commercial automated "Urban Maglev" train, but it has to be shut down when it is too windy?

...that a steam-powered locomotive built specifically by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1893 for its Empire State Express passenger train was the first manmade object on wheels to exceed 100 miles-per-hour?
...that in 1998, a study proposed to relocate Jordanhill railway station, a station currently located near the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde and the Jordanhill School that opened in 1887?
...that the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways add about 500 km of new track each year to their network with planned links to Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan?
...that El Gobernador, Central Pacific Railroad's 4-10-0 steam locomotive, had to be shipped from the shops in Sacramento, California in five large subassemblies due to its enormous size?